In November,I went to Wal-Mart in North Versailles,Pa. I placed a layaway worth $900 easy. In that layaway,I had a camera(118.98),that when it was chosen, was carried back to the layaway counter by an employee.

I pick up my layaway on Dec. 4th. I wrap all gifts as fast as I can, in fear that my children may wake & catch me. I'm a mother of 4 girls, 4,6,8,11. All are very naive & still believe in Santa(at that point).

Christmas day, my children open all their gifts. My oldest goes to open the box of the camera (she specifically asked Santa for it)
and cries out "Santa ripped me off!! There is no camera!!"

I turn to her and say,"Quit playing, let me check it out...it's nicer than mine!" She then bursts into tears crying there is no camera in the box!! I take the box, knowing that there's gotta be a camera in there, I bought it!! I see the side she tore open, and I look at the other end. There was a small seal, a black sticker with the word "Polaroid" on it, with a neat slice across it. Inside the box were all the accessories that went with the camera, including the batteries...but no camera.

My heart dropped because at this point, my daughter was just disappointed by Santa! To finally calm her down, I then had to tell her the truth, that Santa was not real and that it was her father & I that bought the presents, and I would get this fixed as soon as I could. She was extremely upset all day, and refused to open gifts at her Grandmother's house claiming "Why? There's no Santa anyway." (Not to mention she kept saying it in front of my other 3 children, all of whom still believed), which ruined our entire holiday.

Day after Christmas(they were closed on Christmas Day) I go up to Wal-Mart, with my reciept, box, and daughter in tow. I get my little pink sticker & proceed into the store. I go up to a manager(Wilmer) that I recognize and who I know would recognize me.( I'm there at least 2-3 times a week,literaly). I explain the situation, and another manager comes up, and the first manager just leaves with no word, and I have to explain the whole situation all over again.

I do not believe this was an intentional mistake, I think the employee just grabbed the only box for that particular model, it just happened to be the box for the display model. After waiting about 20 minutes, the second manager comes back and says there are no more in stock except the display model, and that I will get my money credited to a gift card. I had my reciept, why was I not offered my cash back so I could go buy her camera elsewhere? I am at that Wal-Mart all the time. Not anymore...I will go out of my way to buy elsewhere.

I honestly don't know what Wal-Mart could do to make this right. I would say she deserves like a shoping spree or something, but I know thats not going to happen. Wal-Mart seems more concerned with making sure that money is spent in their store, than with my daughter getting her camera.